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Sudak or Sudaq (Crimean Tatar: Sudaq; Ukrainian and Russian: Судак) is a small historic town located in Crimea, Ukraine situated 57 km (35 mi) to the west of Feodosiya (the nearest railway station) and 104 km (65 mi) to the east of Simferopol, the capital of Crimea. Today it is a popular resort, best known for its Genoese fortress, the best preserved on the northern shore of the Black Sea.
It is believed that the city was founded in 212 AD by Alani settlers. Greek merchants from the Byzantine Empire founded Σουγδαία (a reference to Sogdia) in the 3rd century. In the 6th century, the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I ordered the construction of a fortress. The Khazars attacked in the 7th century, giving it the name Suğdaq. The Life of St. Stefan of Surozh (Russian: св. Стефан Сурожского) describes the 8th century town as a dependency of the Byzantine Empire. Around the start of the 9th century, it was supposedly attacked by the Rus' chieftain, Bravlin. It is thought that the Khazars retained the town from the early 800s until 1016, when the Byzantines finally defeated the Khazar warlord Georgeios Tsulo. Afterwards, the town seems to have preserved some sort of autonomy within the Byzantine Empire.
